


The Thin White Line

by Colubrina



Series: Dramione One Shots [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:04:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21552019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colubrina/pseuds/Colubrina
Summary: Hermione was sure the thin white line around her wrist was just a scar.  Maybe a birthmark.  It wasn't.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Series: Dramione One Shots [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1464850
Comments: 75
Kudos: 898
Collections: Hermione Granger Wins Again





	The Thin White Line

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rebelsaurus29](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelsaurus29/gifts).

The scar hadn’t been there when Hermione was born; she’d had the perfect, unblemished skin of any other newborn. Early in June of her first year, however, it appeared: a nearly perfect white circle around her wrist. It looked like thin, long-healed scar tissue, and Jean Granger sat her daughter in the doctor’s office with worry in her eyes. “It just appeared,” she said. “Last Thursday.”

The doctor controlled her irritation that she’d wasted an appointment slot on this. She despised these hovering, middle-class, professional mothers. Half of her patients didn’t have enough food, and this woman was worried about an obviously harmless birthmark. “It’s fine,” she said. She added, “Bring her back if any more show up,” as a sop to the woman’s fears.

No more did appear, and Hermione grew up never really thinking about her scar. All kids had scars. It wasn’t until she discovered she was a witch and started Hogwarts that she even gave it a second glance. “You have a soul mark,” Ron Weasley said in what sounded like awe as she reached across the breakfast table to snag the marmalade from his greedy fingers. 

“A what?” she asked.

He explained. They were very rare, his aunt had had one, and there were rumors Dumbledore did, but since he wasn’t married, those had to be false. It meant that somewhere out there was her perfect match, a partner she met and remet every cycle of rebirth. Whoever the person was, he - or she - would have the exact same mark in the exact same place.

“Like true love?” Hermione asked doubtfully. That sounded to her mind about as absurd as Divination, but Ron shook his head.

“More like… I dunno,” he said. “There’s a stupid poem somewhere my mum made me memorize as part of her idea of Hogwarts prep. Something about being the dark to your light, fear to your bravery.” He shrugged. “More like a balance thing. All ying-yangy.”

“So, if I’m smart, this person will be dumb?” This did not sound like a good bargain to Hermione.

Lavender, who’d been eavesdropping, snorted. “No,” she said. “It means they’re perfect for you. The fear bravery thing, if you tend to rush in, they’ll be cautious. It’s a… a complement. You’re supposed to complement each other, bring out each other’s strengths.” She seemed pleased at having remembered the right word and then looked at Hermione’s wrist. “Thought that looks more like just a scar to me. She sniffed. “True soul marks are very rare. I doubt a Muggle-born would have one.”

Hermione privately agreed with Lavender that it was just a scar, probably some kind of baby bracelet that had been too tight and cut into her skin that her mother had conveniently forgotten about. Still, she enjoyed hearing Ron tell Lavender she was a fool, and what did she know about it anyway, and Hermione was just as good as any other witch, and so why shouldn’t she have a soul mark?

Then she promptly forgot about the whole thing until she punched Draco Malfoy in the nose in their third year. He grabbed at her wrist, and she thought he was going to twist her arm and was cursing herself for being so careless, but all he did was stare, shocked, at her wrist and then put a sneer on. “Nice scar, Mudblood,” he said. “Don’t you ever touch me again with your filthy, disgusting hands, do you understand?”

She was going to retort, going to tell him where he could go and offer some suggestions as to what he could do when he got there, but he flung her arm down and ran off, his pack of sycophants at his heels before she could get a word out.

“Blighter,” Ron said, wrapping an arm around her. “That was awesome, Hermione.”

By the time the Battle of Hogwarts was over, Hermione had a lot more scars than just a thin white line around her wrist. She’d braced her shoulders as Aurors rounded up Death Eaters and had slipped away from Harry and Ron to make her way from person to person in the Great Hall, seeing if they needed any help.When she took a break and went outside to find some quiet instead, she found Draco Malfoy sitting alone on some steps, tucked out of view of the main hall.

He looked at her. “Granger,” he said. “I’ll go.”

She waved him back down when he started to stand and just sat next to him, too exhausted to care any more about sides or childhood bullies.They’d won. He’d been as trapped as the rest of them, maybe more so. Maybe tomorrow she could go back to despising him, but today she didn’t have the energy. She clasped her hands in front of her and sat, staring at the blood and dirt on her palms and under her fingernails. She was thinking with borderline hysteria that she could use a good manicure when she looked over at the other set of hands similarly clasped next to her. Draco Malfoy had soot on his, and dirt, and blood, and there was a thin white scar encircling one wrist. 

Her heart almost stopped. 

She reached a finger out and touched it and felt an almost electric shock jolt through her.

“Secret’s out, I guess,” he said. She felt a surge of rage that he’d known - he’d known - and hadn’t told her, and then felt something akin to despair. Bad enough that Ron had never returned her feelings, but to be rejected by someone supposed to be a soulmate seemed like too much to bear. “He would have used you,” Draco said. The words were very soft. “At first I… it seemed like an insult. To have this special thing and then have it be you. By the time I…, he would have used you. Killed you in pieces in front of me. I could never… obviously, after everything, you’ll want nothing to do with me, but it was all I could… I had to protect you and the only way I could was - “

He stopped and took a deep breath and began to stand again. “I’ll let you have some peace.”

“Malfoy,” she said then as if tasting the name, “Draco.”

He sat back down, and when she looked at him, she could see his throat bobbing. “I’m not a good man,” he said. “I’ve done… things. I’ve done bad things, Granger.”

“Me too,” she whispered. She reached over and very tentatively laced her fingers through his. The white lines seemed to glow for a moment, and he tightened his grip on hers.When Harry found them, she’d fallen asleep against Malfoy’s shoulder. Harry’s eyes first narrowed at the sight then, when he saw the line on Draco Malfoy’s wrist, widened. He gave the man a short, curt nod before he walked back into Hogwarts and left the pair, one asleep and the other trying to balance her against his body without disturbing her, as the sun rose higher and higher into the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> June 5th, 1980 was a Thursday.


End file.
